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Cocaine Biosensor
Aaron Rowe writes "The MIT Technology review reports that a lab at UC Santa Barbara has created a biosensor by attaching a special type of DNA called an aptamer to a gold electrode. When cocaine is present, the aptamer tightly hugs a cocaine molecule and leans over so that a metal tag can touch the gold surface. This causes a spike in a plot of current versus voltage when the electrode is attached to a machine called a cyclic voltmeter."
I'm a known gold bug and I've been very interested in the industrial applications of gold (partially to gauge demand issues for future supply). In recent months I've found gold being useful for medicine (possibly as a cancer detector most recently). Now it seems it is useful in finding drugs (although I'm sure this would be only for a police purpose, in a free market the same device might be useful in finding the best drugs).
What are the reasons for gold being used in these situations? I'm very familiar with gold's uniqueness, but it surprises me that it is becoming such a popular metal again -- even beyond the computer and audio industry. Is it really unique for these applications, or is it just a great way for the manufacturers to pad their bottom lines?
Great, there goes my job.
and seconds after they turned it on, the sensor was activated by a passing UCSB undergrad...
When cocaine is present, the aptamer tightly hugs a cocaine molecule and leans over so that a metal tag can touch the gold surface.
Sounds kinky. Makes me regret not listening during chemistry class.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
There are a lot of "Cocaine biosensors" you could hire off the street for a few dollars ah hour. They will react quite strongly when they find the compound in question (i.e. the "good stuff").
They might as well have named it the $20 bill biodetector.
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PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
Does this mean all those drug-sniffing dogs are out of work?
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
It has the potential to measure concentrations of thereputic/analgesic drugs too. Imagine an needle with appropriate probes inside which constantly monitor the blood concentration of drugs. Wires lead to an IV control which then administers the drugs at precisely the rate required.
This is, of course, a very hypothetical future - it might not work out this well.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
No more crawling on the floor at 4am!!!
You are thinking of codeine which is a morphine, i.e. opium, derivative.
Currently, the medicinal use of cocaine is limited to topical anesthesia of the upper respiratory tract and eye because the vasoconstrictive properties of cocaine are desirable during procedures.
Ref
One would hope that this would lead to methods that would be available to employers who currently only test for marijuana. Supposedly cannibus will show up even it it was consumed a month prior, cocaine on the other hand does not show up.
Of course if you look at the history of the CIA in the 80's, one might hypothesize that the government has no interest in stopping cocaine consumption.
At least we all know marijuana is very bad.....there's this new movie out, Reefer Madness......really informative.
Cocaine is a Schedule II controlled substance, it's illegal in ANY quantity with a license. Its uses are confined to a very limited number of surgeries since it's both a local anaesthetic and vasoconstrictor; that's it. It's not prescribed to patients for any reason. Your post would be true about 100 years ago, however.
As a recent grad of UCSB, i'd have to say they picked the perfect place to develop a cocaine sensor. The students and faculty will have no problem finding suitable substances to test it on.
Scott
Actually, the answer to my question was not conductivity -- as the other repliers to my initial question show. Copper seems to be a better conductor in terms of actual conductivity.
The answer I was looking for was why gold specifically for this application and medical applications in general, above and beyond the typical electronic applications.
Researchers can obtain a license from the DEA to acquire (from a company possessing a DEA license to manufacture/distribute, which every major chemical company like Mallinkrodt or Sigma Aldrich has) and possess controlled substances. It's not easy to get, they obsessively track what you purchase and you have to file paperwork accouting for every last bit of it, but many such licenses exist. For more information on obtaining such licenses, see: http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugreg/index.ht ml
How they get the coke for testing?
It's simple. Somebody whips out a twenty dollar bill out of their pocket, because ten out of eleven bills have cocaine on them.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
At-home pregnancy tests are the model of diagnostic simplicity: a tester just pees on a stick and within minutes knows if she has to buy a crib. Imagine if one could just as easily detect HIV infection or a drug overdose.
The real challenge is getting the corse to pee on the stick. I suggest the 'old hand in the warm water' trick.
I love the smell of Karma in the morning
It ended up taking about 68 kilos of cocaine to finally nail down the winning formula, reported biochemist George Placky. "We put in a lot of long nights, in fact we frequently would stay in the lab for 72 hours straight." "The team worked so hard we tried to accomodate them wherever possible." Indeed the lab is awash with stereo equipment, couches, and large screen TVs.
Univeristy officials confirmed the long nights. Security guard Paul Costas remakred "Yeah, those guys were going at it for days on end. I helped them smuggle chicks into their parti..ahh *research*."
"We feel that with another couple of years we will have similar sensors for crystal meth, heroin, and extasy." said Dr. Placky, who is currently applying for federal grants to fund the research, as well as provide sufficient quantities of the substances for thorough research.
"But actually trying to use m4 as a general-purpose langage would be deeply perverse" --ESR
Please. Read your own links! Ten out of Eleven $20 bills in Miami turned out to have trace amounts of cocaine on them. Hell 10 out of 11 of anything in Miami will probably test positive for dozens of illegal substances. You can probably get Robert Downey Jr.'s DNA off of half the inanimate objects in that city.
I don't do drugs and I hate the effects of even recreational use of drugs on people. I don't even like most prescription drugs.
I have suffered because of the idiots trying to stop drug use by this detection and repression regime. So has everyone else. I cannot get Pseudopedrine for my allergies without going through the hoops and hurdles of their system. I am limited to 20 pills a month. It gets worse when you consider the high cost of getting needed medicines going through the Rx system with the MD's. I take synthroid and am on total replacement therapy. My dosage is never going to change. I have been on the same dose for 8 years now. Why can't I just buy it at the pharmacy and forget the $150 a year going to the MD and the $75 lab fees to validate my dose? The drug for a year only costs about $50 and that price is 10 times higher because of this system.
We are headed into a police state where every micro droplet from our body could cause loss of job, family and freedom forever. Worse yet this could be a form of sabotage where someone could sneek a few micrograms of dust onto us and destroy our lives.
None of this addresses drug abuse. The Pseudoephedrine issue was over Meth-labs. There are less meth labs but now the Mexican imports of the drug have more than made up for the supply that was being produced locally. The problem is not gone, it is just moved. Drug abuse is not the result of access to drugs. It is only the result of the desires of people and these are related to other factors we do nothing about using such invasive technology.
Having worked on work sites where people did drugs, I hate the effects. But the problem is that we will not deal with our DRUNKS. I mean drunk on anything that makes them drunk. The US Problem with drugs is not in Mexico and it isn't in Columbia. It is entirely in our own population.
I am painfully aware of the causes of our drug abuse problem. It is mostly a problem of our society raising a bunch of "useless people." We raise our children prohibiting them access to useful occupations and valuable jobs at a young age and making sure they stay away from work which makes them valuable to others for such a long period of time that they never become useful and they destroy their lives because they know they are worthless and useless. This is particularly a disease of our "modern" society where we trash occupations and trash people in the name of progress. This is only going to get worse with the march of technology as we reneder almost all work obsolete. As we permit industrialists to trash entire communities of people saying their skills are "obsolete" etc while not providing for their adjustment and usefulness this problem is going to become universal. I am not against progress and technology but unless it is required (I MEAN WITH LAW) to accomidate people the temptation to dump people is going to be impossible to resist. With the globalism and "free trade" we now see going on, the avoidance of these costs will be simply to shift trade from one nation to another. As it happens all nations will be trashed this way. This is a threat to all hunanity.
Never Politically Correct ~ I prefer the facts If you don't like what I say, get a life, or comment yourself.